1. Introduction

Explored the impact of part of speech input distribution on part of speech representation, particularly for Chinese English learners. Based on the perspective of language acquisition through usage, the study aims to provide evidence to support the view that structural representation is influenced by frequency distribution and structural features. Homomorphic and heterogeneous vocabulary, due to their internal differences in part of speech distribution, has become an ideal material for studying the relationship between part of speech input distribution and representation. The research hypothesizes that Chinese English learners' part of speech representation of homomorphic and heterogeneous vocabulary reflects the frequency distribution characteristics of part of speech, and in cases where verb syntax complexity is higher than noun syntax, learners may be more inclined to represent nouns. In addition, the study also focuses on the impact of nonverbal contextual processing on the part of speech representation of English learners, aiming to explore how language input and perceptual experience affect grammatical representation.

2. Related research

Explored the impact of usage based language acquisition on part of speech representation, emphasizing that language knowledge comes from language use and experience. Researchers examined the acquisition and representation characteristics of different constructions and found that construction representation embodies Zipf's law, and the frequency distribution of constructions has a significant impact on second language acquisition. However, there is limited research on whether broader grammatical categories such as part of speech representation are affected by input distribution. There are differences in the acquisition and representation of English nouns and verbs as basic grammatical components. Nouns emphasize existence, verbs emphasize event and process, and the processing complexity of verbs is usually higher than that of nouns. Situational experience may also be a potential factor affecting part of speech representation, and English learners' processing of visual scenes may affect part of speech representation. There are homophonic nouns and verbs in English, such as flood, whose noun and verb form information and core semantics remain basically unchanged, but there are essential differences in vocabulary and grammar. The part of speech distribution characteristics of homomorphic and heterogeneous vocabulary can be accurately extracted and systematically analyzed, revealing a skewed and balanced trend in the use of nouns and verbs. High frequency parts of speech such as the noun 'flood' are more likely to be activated and characterized than relatively low-frequency parts of speech such as the verb 'flood', while parts of speech with similar frequencies such as the noun 'harvest' and the verb 'harvest' may have similar probabilities of being characterized. However, due to the different syntactic complexities of nouns and verbs, they may interact with the distribution characteristics of part of speech, jointly affecting the representation of part of speech. This study starts from the perspective of language acquisition based on usage, utilizing the semantic and morphological characteristics of homomorphic nouns and verbs, as well as the frequency of corpus usage, to investigate the influence of part of speech input distribution and visual context on English learners' part of speech representation.

3. Research methods

This chapter introduces a study aimed at exploring the impact of part of speech input distribution and visual context on the part of speech representation of Chinese English learners. The study adopts an experimental design of 2 (part of speech input distribution: skewed distribution, balanced distribution) × 2 (visual scenario: activated state, default state) × 2 (part of speech representation category: noun, verb), with part of speech input distribution and visual scenario as independent variables and part of speech representation as dependent variable. The study selected 131 first-year English major students as participants and collected data through a task of word writing output. The development of research tools is based on the theoretical viewpoint that language use and representation are inseparable. By analyzing the vocabulary entries and parts of speech in the COCA commonly used vocabulary list, noun and verb entries with the same form but different parts of speech are extracted, and their frequency and rank of use are recorded. Researchers grouped candidate vocabulary based on the frequency order of nouns and verbs, selecting 8 words as target items in each group. They also selected images that highlight the process of events and relationships between things based on the semantic features of the target words, in order to activate verb parts of speech that are at a disadvantage in representation. The test is conducted in the form of classroom assignments, requiring participants to independently complete word writing tasks, with two sentences written for each question. The researchers developed scoring criteria based on the research objectives, and two applied linguistics graduate students collaborated to score the test papers according to the scoring criteria. The scoring results were analyzed using SPSS for descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, and mean comparison analysis.

4. Research results

The influence of part of speech input distribution and visual context on Chinese English learners' part of speech representation was explored through descriptive statistics and univariate analysis of variance. The results show that part of speech representation varies depending on the distribution of part of speech input and visual context. Under skewed distribution, noun representation dominates, while under balanced distribution, there is no significant difference in noun and verb representation. The influence of visual scenes on the representation of homomorphic and heterogeneous parts of speech fluctuates among different groups. There is an interactive effect between the distribution of part of speech input and the type of part of speech representation, as well as between the visual scene and the type of part of speech representation, while there is no interactive effect between the distribution of part of speech input and the visual scene. Simple effects analysis shows that both part of speech input distribution and visual context have a significant impact on noun and verb representation. Paired sample t-test found that in the skewed distribution group, English learners' noun representation was significantly better than verb representation, while in the balanced distribution group, noun representation was weaker than verb representation in the activated state. Independent sample t-test shows that visual scenes can affect the representational relationship between homomorphic nouns and verbs, but their influence is limited. Overall, the representation advantage of homomorphic noun parts of speech is greater than that of verb parts of speech, but the distribution of part of speech input and visual context can change this trend.

5. Discussion

This chapter discusses the impact of part of speech input distribution and visual context on the part of speech representation of Chinese English learners. Research has found that the distribution of part of speech inputs has an impact on the part of speech representation of homomorphic and heterogeneous vocabulary, while visual scenarios can enhance the representation of complex parts of speech, such as verbs. This is consistent with previous research, indicating that part of speech representation is influenced by frequency distribution. Visual scenarios guide learners to activate the representation of English verb grammar, develop cognitive connectivity and collaboration. The results support the use based view of language acquisition, showing a close relationship between the distribution of part of speech input and part of speech representation, which is evidence that part of speech representation is probabilistic processing. The trend of part of speech representation among English learners is consistent with the frequency distribution of part of speech in the corpus, indicating that probabilistic processing also plays a role in abstract structures. The significant impact of input distribution on different structural levels indicates that this factor has a systematic effect on language representation and processing. Part of speech types play an important role in the part of speech representation of English learners. Learners generally prefer the representation of nouns over verbs, reflecting the common characteristics of part of speech representation in foreign language learning and native language learning. The difference in representation between verbs and nouns is related to the complexity of their semantic structures. The visual context that highlights the process of events and the relationship between things has a significant promoting effect on the representation of verb parts of speech, indicating the existence of cross modal connectivity between perceptual experience and English part of speech representation, and promoting the connection between situational processing and second language grammar processing. The interface between the information elements of visual scenes and psychological processes such as activation, representation, and suppression of parts of speech affects the implementation form of vocabulary syntax.

6. Conclusion

This study reveals that the part of speech representation of Chinese English learners is influenced by the distribution of part of speech inputs and visual contexts. It was found that noun representation is superior to verb representation, and visual contexts activate verb representation while inhibiting noun representation. The research results indicate that vocabulary representation is dynamic and influenced by multiple factors, which can inspire grammar teaching. Teachers should consider input features and part of speech types, and use situational experiences to promote cognitive connectivity among learners. This study used a written output test to examine the influence of variables, and future research could adopt more methods and objects, such as reading reaction time, oral output, etc., to examine the part of speech representation of learners at different levels.